Need Help with "Get Info"

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Don't know what I did, but suddenly I am unable to open "Get Info" on any desktop shortcut. It works fine on desktop items such as screenshots or folders, but will no longer work at all on any internet shortcuts I have created. The whole screen just "blinks" and comes back, without opening Get Info.

Help!!!
 
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Oh Dear...Getting So Discouraged

Don't know what I did, but suddenly I am unable to open "Get Info" on any desktop shortcut. It works fine on desktop items such as screenshots or folders, but will no longer work at all on any internet shortcuts I have created. The whole screen just "blinks" and comes back, without opening Get Info.

Help!!!

Worried because there are no replies ... worried that there is no solution.
 
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Well without knowing the operating system and exact model it is hard to make any suggestions. Have you upgraded or updated the operating system lately?
 
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Harry, the exact model is on the left under my specs. No, I have not upgraded or updated anything lately. Running Sierra 10.12.6
I know that I hit something on the keyboard...but I don't know what. I remember some confusion and not sure what I did or what happened, but I know after that Get Info didn't work on shortcuts.
 

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@terryann

I’m not nitpicking here, just want to be clear that I understand your post. When you say shortcuts, may I assume you mean an alias that you have created on your Desktop?

And may I assume that the alias is working; that is, when you click on it, it opens the document or file to which it linked?

And how many such aliases are we talking about? It may be that when “ hit something on the keyboard” that you either broke the link or changed something, though it’s hard to know what as you don’t recall what you did.

If there are only a few of them, it might be better binning them and recreating new aliases.

Presumably, if you want to Get Info, you can still get that by going to the source? The shortcut is Command plus the letter I. Or Right Click and choose Get Info.

Ian
 
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The "shortcuts" are web links that I put on my desktop by dragging the favicon to my desktop. Yes, the links work perfectly and take me to the correct website.
Every single item on my desktop can be opened by Get Info, except all these web links, and None of the web links work.
Creating new ones does not help....when I do that, the same thing happens...the whole screen just "blinks" and Get Info does not open.
Command-I does not work, it results in the same blink and then nothing.
I found out Get Info was not working because I was trying to change the icons and could not open any of them.
I would say there are at least 20 different links on my desktop that I have created in the past to quickly take me to web addresses. Get Info works on none of them. I have been creating these web links for years and creating icons for them and using Get Info to paste the new icon to it. Now suddenly I cannot do it...but yes, the links work if you double-click on them. It's just "Get Info" that does not open.
 
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The "shortcuts" are web links that I put on my desktop by dragging the favicon to my desktop. Yes, the links work perfectly and take me to the correct website.
Every single item on my desktop can be opened by Get Info, except all these web links, and None of the web links work.


Have you tried just shutting down and leave your Mac off for a minute, then boot up using Safe Boot Mode, login as your normal username, and then just Restart normally and see if things work any better.





- Patrick
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What browser are you using to create the links?

Did you just upgrade to a newer macOS version?
 
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Now suddenly I cannot do it...but yes, the links work if you double-click on them. It's just "Get Info" that does not open.


I am just being a bit curious here, but why is there such a need to open or use the "Get Info" on such favicon files???

It seems they work to get to the site(s) as expected.





- Patrick
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I am using Safari on the mac and also Chrome and Firefox sometimes. No, I did not install any upgrades or do anything new.
Note that Get Info always worked before on these links. No matter what browser I had used to create them.
PM-R: Functionally, they work, yes. But I don't want to have to defend my desire to have custom icons on my desktop links, but primarily it is for ease of reading and because I am a graphic artist and I like my desktop to look nice. Clearly, tho, something that was working before isn't working now. And that bothers me.

Patrick: I shut down and restarted in safe mode, even did a disk utility scan, no errors, then restarted again and it is still doing the same thing. Thanks for the suggestion, tho.

- - - Updated - - -
 
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@terryann
PM-R: Functionally, they work, yes. But I don't want to have to defend my desire to have custom icons on my desktop links, but primarily it is for ease of reading and because I am a graphic artist and I like my desktop to look nice. Clearly, tho, something that was working before isn't working now. And that bothers me.



Well Terry, that would bother me too, and maybe that's why I stick with using Mavericks where most things still seem to work, especially when custom modding ones Mac.

I don't usually use Sierra and I can find why your Get Info doesn't work on any favicon.

The only work-around I can think off would be to create a folder with the custom icon you want and drag your favicon into it. Not ideal I know, but…

I know you wanted your favicons on your Desktop, but if you wouldn't mind having them in your Safari window, you couldn't have custom icons for those sites using Safari extension: FaviconBar
It will allow you to add custom icons into your Safari menubar.
Download and info available here:
https://github.com/RoryCombe/FaviconBar

PS: maybe another Sierra using member could test and see if they can do a custom icon into a favicon. I can't see why they would be so different unless Apple left something out in there Sierra version. It works fine in Mavericks.


EDIT:
I see Tom Nelson has the instructions for similar to what you want to do, but no mention of which OS X Version is involved, but the page is showing 2018:
How to Add URLs to Your Mac’s Dock Using Custom Icons
https://blog.macsales.com/41999-how-to-add-urls-to-your-dock-using-custom-icons

I'm really wondering why it doesn't work for you.

Strange…










- Patrick
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I don’t remember, have you tried the NVRAM and.or SMC resets?


Bob, can you do a Get Info on a favicon file using your Mojave???

Good suggestion on the resets, but the strange part is everything seems to work on normal files or folders for the OP.





- Patrick
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While Patrick is ready to throw anything past Mavericks (from 2013) under the bus, the fact is that I just created a webloc shortcut on my Mojave desktop and Get Info worked perfectly. (Webloc is what is actually there, not just the favicon. "Webloc" is a combination of "Web" and "Location" and holds the actual URL of the site.) Here is the Get Info window on the webloc for this very page. So, if it's not working for you something changed on your system. It's not anything Apple has done.

2018-11-01 08.02.00 pm resize.png
 
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While Patrick is ready to throw anything past Mavericks (from 2013) under the bus, the fact is that I just created a webloc shortcut on my Mojave desktop and Get Info worked perfectly.


I am not throwing anything "under the bus", but was trying to help out the OP and querying any members running Sierra if they had the same problem.

As I mentioned earlier, regardless of OS X version being used, and it seems odd to me, that their Get Info would work on a normal file or folder but not on a favicon or WEBLOC.








- Patrick
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Sorry, Patrick, that was meant more in jest than in earnest. Apologies.

As for the problem, the Get Info has worked on webloc files continuously, so whatever her system is doing is something unique to her system. I don't have icons to test changing the icon, but when I tried putting a jpg on the webloc, the logo changed from webloc to jpg, so the "change" was recognized. If I had a suitable icon file, I'm sure the change would have worked.

Given that it's working in Mojave, I don't think Apple took it out of Sierra and then put it back. I really think she did something to change her desktop operationally. I don't know what, but as I said, it isn't Apple doing it. She had said
I remember some confusion and not sure what I did or what happened, but I know after that Get Info didn't work on shortcuts.

About all I can suggest is to see if she has a full backup from before the "confusion" and can restore to that state?
 
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Had a small brainwave, opened one of my apps (Minesweeper) as a package and got the icon for that app as a file and put it on my desktop. Then I dragged the URL from Safari address bar to the desktop and got the webloc shortcut. Did a Get Info on that webloc and then dragged the icon from the Minesweeper to the Get Info and the icon on the desktop changed immediately to the Minesweeper. So, what the OP wants works, just not on her system. Hope that helps some.
 
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Had a small brainwave, opened one of my apps (Minesweeper) as a package and got the icon for that app as a file and put it on my desktop.


Interesting.


I really think she did something to change her desktop operationally. I don't know what, but as I said, it isn't Apple doing it.
That certainly seems that it might be the case.

But it's also strange that such a change could be made to something in the bowels of the System in Sierra seems a bit serious, especially if it was done without any OS interception or Root type permission.





- Patrick
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Well, it could be that whatever the "confusion" was somehow "broke" Get Info. She says it
The whole screen just "blinks" and comes back, without opening Get Info.
and
the whole screen just "blinks" and Get Info does not open.
Command-I does not work, it results in the same blink and then nothing.
To me, both of those point to Get Info trying to launch, then aborting for some reason, maybe even triggering Finder to restart (the blink?). Until and unless we know what the "confusion" was, we're just guessing.

It might be a plist issue, but if Get Info works on files and folders, just not weblocs, that seems a bit remote. And if it is, I would have no idea where the plist would be.

Wonder if there would be a crash report for Get Info? Is Get Info subject to crash reports?
 
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Wonder if there would be a crash report for Get Info? Is Get Info subject to crash reports?


I have no idea. But maybe included is some "Finder" stuff.

I say it's starting to look like running a compatible macOS COMBO Update or Sierra reinstall, but maybe doing the old delete Finder Preferences plist file and restart may even fix the problem.

Anyway, the OP at least as a few suggested options to try to fix the problem if they want to try any of them.







- Patrick
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